A method and system in accordance with the first two paragraphs is known for instance from GB-A-2,217,544. Furthermore, IR-RF and RF-IR converters for transmitting IR codes to legacy devices (e.g. VCR, STB) that are located on places isolated from IR light (e.g. behind walls, in closets etc.) are available on the market.
The existing systems, however, are not well equipped to handle a wide range of IR sub-carrier frequencies and because the IR signal can have various coding schemes the IR signal is not always easily recovered from the transmitted RF (radio frequency) signal. Also for high frequencies low-cost RF transmission is impossible or at least hard to obtain.